


What Benefits Us Both

by xenocuriosa



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Outbound Flight - Timothy Zahn
Genre: (kind of), Chiss Politics, Dom/sub, F/M, Femdom, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Pheromones, Sex Work, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-12 20:53:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenocuriosa/pseuds/xenocuriosa
Summary: The Chiss system of patronage is complex, but Thrass is well-equipped to manipulate it.





	What Benefits Us Both

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shanlyrical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanlyrical/gifts).

> I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoy it! Happy Halloween!

"Report," Ar'alani said curtly the moment Thrass stepped into her office.

"His decision is unchanged," Thrass said. He smoothed out the front of his robes and surreptitiously adjusted his sash, which he ought to have done before entering the office; Ar'alani would notice and take offense at his lack of preparation. Perhaps that was for the best; any excuse for his patron to relieve her stress upon him. "Even from the infirmary bed, he believes his course of action is the best."

Thrass recounted the rest of the conversation as succinctly as possible, leaving out the presence of the two aliens—there was enough tension between Thrawn and Ar'alani without dragging Thrawn's odd fascination with them into it.

_ No, I've never had any such thoughts,  _ Thrawn had said, in response to Thrass' question about leaving the Vagaari alone. Thrass knew his brother better than anyone in the galaxy; he could not understand why Thrawn, usually so perceptive, could not see things from the point of view of the Aristocras and Hierarchy.

Then again, perhaps he could, and simply didn't care to acknowledge it.

As he finished the story, Ar'alani's lips thinned. She paced the room like a caged predator, her frustration fairly radiating from her every move. Thrass watched, attentive. He knew his role here to secure both his and Thrawn's positions—especially Thrawn's.

"Again and again he pushes the boundaries of what the Hierarchy can withstand," Ar'alani said. Her fingertips drummed against the table by which she stood. "I suspect the Eighth Ruling Family is none too impressed, either?"

"Hardly," Thrass said. He hesitated before telling her the next part, but Ar'alani was his patron and his and Thrawn's only ally, and she needed to know the full scope of the situation. "They are considering rescinding his position as Trial-Born."

Ar'alani hissed through her teeth. To have such an honor stripped from him would be tantamount to expulsion from Chiss society. Not only would Thrawn be a commoner again, but one with the stain of shame and poor conduct upon him, and there was little the Chiss despised more than those who had failed in their familial duties. The Ascendancy provided a welfare system for those living with such fates, but it was minimal. Thrawn would suffer, and if Thrass stood by him, he would suffer as well. But how could he do anything less for his brother?

As for Ar'alani...she could survive the situation with minimal damage to her reputation, if she repudiated them both. Would she?

It was not an answer Thrass particularly wanted to learn.

"Does he not know?" Ar'alani demanded. "Is he not aware of the risks he takes?"

It was a rhetorical question. She shook her head. "He is a skilled commander—the best I have ever seen. Once, I was proud to call him my student."

Thrass winced at that.  _ Once. _

"What will he do next, do you think?" Ar'alani asked.

Set out against the Vagaari, Thrass knew. Push the limits of the Ascendancy's goodwill until it snapped. Do what he believed was the right and just thing to do, and damn the consequences.

"I don't think he's learned his lesson, if that's what you're asking," he said.

"I thought not." 

Ar'alani stood very still for a moment, gazing into the distance, calculating. Whatever conclusion she came to was not a pleasant one, for her brow furrowed and her lips tightened.

She swung her gaze back to Thrass, and there was resolve in her eyes. Not, though, regarding the situation with Thrawn. Thrass stiffened to attention; he had never been trained in the military, but Ar'alani had taught him to do that much. It was what she demanded of her beneficiaries.

"Syndic Mitth'ras'safis," she said, her voice cold. "Take off your clothes."

Ar'alani enjoyed grace, and she liked a little show. Thrass was deliberate as he untied his sash and let it drop to the ground behind him, forming a semicircle in the Mitth Family burgundy. His hands went to the latches on his robe, unlatching the collar first to bare his throat; her eyes flicked to the exposed skin, where she liked to leave marks. The robe parted more, exposing the thin tunic he wore underneath it. Though Thrass was a Syndic and did not have the sculpted body the Defense Fleet regimen gave its members, the Chiss were great believers in keeping both mind and body sharp; he was very fit.

The robe dropped to the floor, along with the sash. Now he wore nothing but the tunic and his boots. Thrass locked eyes with Ar'alani, whose lips had parted slightly, and took the edges of the tunic and pulled it over his head, ensuring as he did so that the angle emphasized his musculature.

He stood naked before her and let her look her fill. Ar'alani's eyes glowed with arousal. She really did enjoy watching him strip.

Thrass enjoyed it too; he liked being on display for her, liked the desire in her expression as she looked him up and down. His cock was swelling, beginning to drip.

"Very good," Ar'alani said, and stepped forward. She cupped his face in her hands and met his eyes, her thumbs stroking his cheekbones as he stood pliant. From anyone else, it would have been a tender gesture; from Ar'alani, it was a reminder of her power, of how she owned him to the point of caressing him like a lover.

Her hand slipped around the back of his neck and took his braid in a firm fist, pulling slowly but inexorably until Thrass gasped, tears springing to his eyes. The pain shot straight to his cock and made it twitch, leaking enough to drip on her boot. There were perks to this arrangement. Ar'alani dragged his head down to look at it.

"Clean up after yourself," she said, contempt in her voice, overlying her eagerness at the thought of making him kneel.

"Yes, Admiral," Thrass murmured, and went to his knees. He closed his eyes and licked his own fluid off the toe of her boot, shivering a little with arousal. He liked this, liked and hated it at the same time. Being reminded of his place in the Chiss social hierarchy, knowing that despite how high he'd climbed or would climb, there would always be this: Ar'alani above him and Thrass on his knees, for despite his best efforts, he could not influence the Defense Hierarchy without her.

"Good," Ar'alani said. Thrass sat back on his haunches and kept his gaze downturned until Ar'alani slid a finger under his chin and tipped his head up.

"Unbraid your hair," she said.

Thrass undid the clasp at the end of the braid, the sigil of House Safis, and shook out his hair. It fell around his shoulders like a blue-black curtain, and Ar'alani ran her fingers through it. Again, an almost-tender gesture; at least until she knotted her fingers in it and pulled him forward until his face was pressed against her thigh. He could smell her arousal, and her pheromones made his mouth water. At the scent, his world narrowed to one thing: pleasing Ar'alani and making her his mate. Primitive urges, he knew, but not ones he could shake off.

"Let me please you," he whispered, and pressed a kiss to her thigh. "Please, Admiral."

"Well," Ar'alani said, her voice unsteady; the pheromones affected her too. "Since you asked so politely."

He took off her boots first, his higher faculties reminding his lust-driven primate brain that she liked him to be slow and graceful. It was difficult, with hands shaking from desire. She balanced easily on one foot as he drew each boot off, and allowed him to unlatch her uniform trousers, tugging them down over her lean hips and to the floor.

She stepped out of them and walked backwards to a chair, dragging him by the hair, making him crawl. His breath caught in his throat, and when she sat down and spread her legs, a whimper escaped his lips.

"Just like that, Syndic," she said, a hint of amusement in her voice as she used his title. Thrass couldn't care less. He put his hands on her thighs and spread her legs wider, admiring the damp frills of her sex, and lapped at her center, licking up and down her frills, tasting her intoxicating arousal.

His perception of time stretched; there was only this, him and Ar'alani and her pleasure, his face buried between her legs. His own cock was painfully swollen, and he was making a mess of the floor.

Her thighs tightened around his head and her hands shoved his face deeper into her frills as she climaxed; but she did not release him. She never did; she would leave him on the floor until his knees ached.

Again and again she came, wrenching Thrass' head where she wanted him to be, ordering him to lick and suck in a hoarse voice, until Thrass was trembling and moaning into her. He pulled away, just slightly, and said desperately, "Please, Admiral!"

"Touch yourself," she ordered, and Thrass groaned with relief as he finally stroked his aching cock.

It was difficult, to balance his duties giving her pleasure with attending to his own, but Thrass had some experience with that at this point, and soon he fell into a rhythm of stroking his cock and lapping at her. Her hands were loose in his hair, languid with the aftermath of orgasm. Now she was not particularly seeking climax, only enjoying the pleasure of power.

"May I—?" Thrass gasped, and Ar'alani said, "No."

Thrass groaned and let go of his twitching cock, gripping Ar'alani's thighs tightly. A full minute passed, and she said, "Continue."

Twice she did this to him, until Thrass was begging in a most undignified manner. The grasp the pheromones had on him could only be broken by orgasm, and it was growing unbearable; tears were pricking his eyes by the time Ar'alani said, "On your back."

Thrass obeyed, laying supine with his hands clenched at his sides. He wanted very badly to touch himself, or to touch her, but Ar'alani did not give him permission for this. Instead, she crouched beside him and observed him for a moment.

"You are my favorite beneficiary, I think," she said thoughtfully, and ran a finger up the length of Thrass' cock. He twitched and moaned and said in a throaty voice, " _ Please— _ "

Ar'alani wrapped her hand around his cock and gave it two firm strokes, and the tension in Thrass' groin burst into pure pleasure. He gasped, eyes squeezing shut, his hips arching into her hand, and splattered his chest with his come.

He laid there limp for a moment, basking in the aftermath, before his brain started to come back online and his higher faculties reasserted themselves over his primal instincts. 

Thrass sat up. Ar'alani had put her clothes back on while he was lying there, and she was sitting in her chair, watching him with her chin in her hand.

Thrass crawled to her and took her hand, kissing her palm, as was traditional.

"Thank you, patron," he said, and Ar'alani snorted.

"Thank me later," she said acerbically, "when I've rescued Mitth'raw'nuruodo from this latest mess."

"I thank you for trying, at any rate," Thrass said, and stood. "Your refresher?"

"In my quarters," she said, her eyes glowing with amusement. "You'll have to wipe off here and shower there."

Meaning that the scent of sex would be on him as he walked the length of her ship. Well, her patronage of him was hardly a secret, although Thrass was unsure if other patrons demanded the same service of their beneficiaries as Ar'alani did. He would certainly get some sidelong looks.

But it was worth it for the benefits of the arrangement.

"Go," Ar'alani said. She had already summoned a document on her computer, dismissing him completely. "Until next time, Syndic."

"Until next time, Admiral," Thrass echoed, then bowed, then left.


End file.
